Travel to the heart of Europe, april 2004

Travel to the heart of Europe
European Cultural
Identity Caravan
April
2004, with 200 people from all over the world.

Travel and preparation
04.04.04
Munich

Two hours
walk through the old town on this peaceful and quiet Palm Sunday morning. Every
here and there traditional brass bands playing as sensitive as possible. The
cafés preparing for the ‘Café und Kuchen’ after the Holy Mess. After the night
in the train, moving through the Europe we know towards the start of the
Caravan. We are happy to be here and look forward to the travel in the unknown.
We also enjoy being together, just the two of us, for the first time since
several years. Mother and daughter.

In the
train between Munich and Bled. I am writing my key-notes. They are in Dutch and
not yet translated. Slowly the landscape alters into the Slovenian mountains.
There is also a feeling of making connection with the ages before.
European Cultural Identity Caravan
05.04.04-11.04.04
Slovenia,
Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Czech

Introduction on the European Identity Cultural Caravan

If it's Monday, April 5, this must be Slovenia. If it's Tuesday the 6th,
it's Hungary.
If Wednesday, Slovakia.
Thursday, Poland.
Friday, Latvia.
Saturday, Czech Republic. Six countries in six days!
(Actually six in eight, for there's an assembly day at scenic Lake Bled in
Slovenia
on Palm Sunday, April 4, and an extra day in Prague Easter Sunday, April 11.)

Sounds like American package tourists making a whirlwind Trip of a Lifetime.
But it isn't. It's some 140 European civic leaders, businessmen, entrepreneurs,
artists, journalists and just plain joyriders (see "If You Go," in
margin) taking all or part of a 2,500-kilometer (1,550-mile) journey mostly
by train, plane and bus, to and through six of the 10 nations that join the
European Union May 1. Charter flights to and from the Latvian capital, Riga, will be a symbolic greeting to the other Baltic
nations, Lithuania and Estonia, which aren't on the itinerary, with Malta and Cyprus represented on board if
celebrating in the distance.

The originator and driving force of the project, Slovenian-born violinist Miha
Pogacnik, 54, calls it the European-Identity Cultural Caravan. But I call it the
A-train (A for "Accession").

A rolling seminar

The train will be nine coaches long. Each car will carry a rotating group of up
to 20 passengers to develop a specific discussion topic, with two experts -- a
host and a moderator -- to channel the conversation creatively. But this is no
luxury elitist Orient Express. The cars won't be sleepers but traveling
auditoriums. Passengers will sleep in hotels en route.

Tentatively, the topics are "European Leadership" (with Dutch
management consultant and trainer Fons Trompenaars and David Kamenetzky of
Goldman Sachs), "Innovation and Enterpreneurship" (with Francesco de
Leo, who is developing a satellite news network originating in Monte Carlo),
"Sustainability and Ecology" (with Dutch environmentalist Ludo van
Oyen and Klaus Leisinger, president of the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable
Development), "Polyphonic Media" (with Roger de Weck, the Swiss
former editor-in-chief of Die Zeit in Hamburg and Tages Anzeiger
in Z•rich, and Roland Schatz, founder of Media Tenor, a worldwide
media-monitoring organization, and co-inventor of the Caravan concept with
Pogacnik in the 1980s), "Education and Learning" (with Hans Siggaard
Jensen of the Copenhagen Business School), "Democracy and Constitution"
(with Alja Brglez, director of the Slovenian Institute of Civilization and
Culture in Ljubljana), "Interdisciplinary Role of the Arts"(with
Pogacnik and his magic violin), "The Future of Universities and
Science" and "Social Responsibility" (with Nikos Avlonas of the
American College of Greece). The working language will be English, with
translations provided when needed.

At each destination -- usually the capital, though Poland's
is Krakow -- the visitors will be welcomed by
high-level dignitaries. Each country will have an "ambassador" aboard
the train. The Czech
Republic's is novelist Arnost Lustig, whose
Geneva-based daughter Eva is the caravan's Czech liaison. Slovakia is sending children's literature guru
Dusan Roll; Slovenia
is sending Danica Purg of the IEDC-Bled School of Management.

Local hosts and patrons include the president of Latvia
and, in Prague, Mayor Pavel Bem, Senate
President Petr Pithart and Monika Pajerova of the nongovernmental organization
Yes for Europe. Every stop along the way will
also include entertainment by local celebrities as well as Pogacnik, usually
free of charge. The two-day program in Prague
is especially rich and will appear in next week's Calendar pages.

The themes we worked on together, during the travel.

European
Leadership
Innovation
and entrepreneurship
Sustainability
and Ecology
Polyphonic
Media
Education
and Learning
Democracy
and Constitution
Interdisciplinary
Role of the Art
The Future
of Universities and Science
Social
Responsibility

My key notes (in Dutch)

You can
find more about the key notes of other participants in the book of
preparation:
“A journey of Exploration: Composing Europe”
via (website not found)
There you
also can find the final statements of al the discussion groups.

The travel together

The travel together04.04.04
Bled, Still Sunday

With a taxi
to the Castle of Bled on top of a rocky mountain rising up from the
lake. The
curly road brings us to the first short sight of the people we are going
to be
with for the next week. Because of the delay of our train already in the
Netherlands, we missed the connection in Munich and build up a delay of
about
four or five hours. The relaxed schedule of the reception of guests was
ended
by the time we arrived and we had to hurry back to check in our hotel.
About
fifteen minutes to take a very quick shower and find our way down to the
lake,
where the boats waited for us all. Then we enjoyed a very beautiful row
to the
island of Bled while the sun set and we felt comfortable all together in
the
same boats. We start to mingle our languages.

Walking up
the sun warmed stones of the stairs to the chapel, I notices many yellow
primroses (sleutelbloemen). It was a kind of shock.. how could I forget
them.
There were many of them in my youth, but they must have been disappeared
without letting me know.

In the
chapel it was still as could as winter, you could see your breath. We
enjoyed a
welcoming concert by chorus Gallus and Miha Pogacnik, violin. The
welcoming
words were from the Slovene poet Ciril Zlobec. He is a member of the
Slovene
Academy and was member of the Slovene Presidency from 1990 till 1992.
The poem
was a love poem, very beautiful and sensitive, even in the translation
to
English.

Back in the
boats, it was full moon, and a very romantically passage over the lake
to the
lights of Bled. We didn’t eat much since breakfast in Munich and a quick
meal
in the train. It must have been towards eleven or midnight that there
was a
lovely vegetarian meal with warm fires in the courtyard of a tavern.
Inside
there was no place for such a big and growing group of people. We
started
conversations and enjoyed this wonderful international companionship.

Time to go
to bed. Very satisfied with this first day, but of course rather tired.
We had
an unpleasant surprise in our hotel room. First we didn’t see it because
of the
pattern of the carpet, but then there were thousands of ants on the
flour and
starting to be everywhere.

We changed
rooms fluently and went to sleep.

05.04.04
Bled, Monday

Early
morning breakfast andleaving for the plenary at Bled school of
Management across the road. A very modern building which was very
similar to a
museum of contemporary arts. Ember was not feeling very well, she looked
a bit
like a sad bird and needed my silk scarf to wind around her throat.
After the
plenary she went back to the hotel room and I went to the first session
of the
workshops. We presented ourselves to each other and talked about the
first
questions mentioned in the plenary.

We were six
or seven people. All from the western countries, like Norway, the
Netherlands,
England, Germany, Canada and also Japan. Mostly men. Not enough
diversity in my
opinion. We were asked not to skip discussion groups during the week,
but look
for depth. I suggested to trespass that rule and ask for other members.
Specially from the middle European countries and to find a more divers
and
representatively group. The next day we were seventeen altogether and we
became
soon a very vivid and powerful team.

Ljubljana (Slovenia)

05.04.04
Ljubljana (Slovenia), Tuesday

Start
before the statue of Europe.
Walk
through the old town, with guide.
Gregorian
music, very beautiful.
Walk to the
castle of Ljublijana
Wise words
of an landscape healing architect, vision on Europe
Music and
dance of Renaissance Ljublijana
Walk to the
city Hall, welcome by the (female) mayor
Presentation
of the book ‘man in a magic square’ of the national dead poet. Modern
dance from Triest.
(No meal by
misunderstanding, so we skipped the
Concert in
the old post office, seated between the orchestra
And had a
lovely meal instead, Ember and I.)

Budapest (Hungary)

06.04.04 Budapest (Hungary), Wednesday

Many hours
of delay at the border.
Exhibition
of Hungarian architect Imre Makovecz.
Plenary and
small groups meet the local civil servants and politicia.
Reception
with buffet.
Concert of
string quartet Csaba Onczay.
Cello and
piano concert.

Miha Pogacnik

Photo: The
inspirator of the EICC European Identity Cultural Caravan, Miha Pogacnik

http://www.mihavision.com

Bratislava (Slovakia)

07.04.04 Bratislava (Slovakia), Thursday

Many hours
of delay at the border
Welcome in
Town Hall
with two
slices of bread each, if you were lucky
Short walk
through the old town centre by night
Speech from
EU commissioner
Folklore
music and dances

Krokow, Poland

08.04.04 Krokow (Poland), Friday
Town HallFour hours
of delay at the border
Welcome by
mayor and town architect
In the very
beautiful Town Hall
With plenty
of food for all of us and friendly people
Theatre of
Shakespeare in the Polish language
Guided tour
through the centre of the old town
Departure
for Prague

University of Krokow

Photo: University of Krokow

Market place of Krokow

Photo: Market
place of Krokow

Prague, Czech

10.04.04 Prague (Czech), Sunday

We both
missed the guided tour through the centre of Prague
But were in
time for the photo exhibition and museum.

Prague, Czech

The keynotes of innovation and entrepreneurship

11.04.04 Prague (Czech), MondayAt the end of the European Identity Cultural Caravan tour we were the guests of Rytirsky
Salle, senate of parliament of the Czech Republik. And about 200 people who worked one week on a common message on 10 themes enjoyed the final comming together. We listened to the speech of
Petr Pithart, senate leader of the parliament of CR. And to greeting
words from Pavel Bern, Mayor of the capital city Prague. There was a life video
transmission from Madeleine Albright USA and a statement
of Alja Brglezová, institute of civilization and culture of Slovenia . . .

. . . And
suddenly there was no time left to present the keynotes of the 9 themes of European Identity Cultural Caravan . . , so I give
you ours on Innovation and entrepreneurship down here . . . and we spent the last evening together, never forgetting what we had in common. We could feel that deep down in our hearts. The heart of Europe.

By
discussing:
What is the
overall scope ?
What can
the group achieve ?
What
contribution we can make to the caravan ?
What
contribution we can make to the new EU countries ?
We focused on an "European way" of
innovation and entrepreneurship.
We
found out six questions and we agreed in the following answers:

1. What
kind of innovation do we need in today’s world ?

We have to
accept the limitations of nature. Nature is the main value for a human
society.
Therefore: any innovation which improves the relationship between human
society
and nature has to be encouraged.

First we
took a closer look at the process of innovation. In fact you can put our
starting question the other way round: “What kind of environment we need
to
foster innovations ?” An open culture,
access to information, need for application, ability to transform
innovations
into society with different incubation times.

We talked
about the more global aspects, like climate change, rich versus poor,
international disputes and terrorism. About natural economics, more
renewable
energies, hydro gene economy, new agri-food products. Connecting
everything in
globalisation also comes with new dangers. We imagined what would happen
if the
natural oil resources would be disappeared at once.

We leave
that to your imagination, but there was also the idea something would
change,
more a cultural switch, status and symbols would renew.

2. What is
the desirable relationship of innovation and entrepreneurship?

Entrepreneurship
can lay the basics for employment, but this is not a permit for wasteful
activity. Entrepreneurship needed in today’s world has to stimulate
innovations, which respect nature and human living conditions.

This
balance we have to find out every day once more.

Encourage
co-operative risk-taking business and mutual networking. Find acceptable
ways
to deal with failures. Entrepreneurship without innovation is perhaps
more safe
but less sexy. What would you tell your son or daughter?

There are
three major problems: we stick to vested interests, inflexible flawed
thinking,
and have poor future visions. We could start to incubate positive
feelings,
think ‘out of the box’ and seek for diversity in many situations.

We might
need a more dynamic social economic system model: the balance between
work,
income, care is continuously shifting
depending on the individual needs, opposites could be more combined to
measure.
More individual, more regional.

Over
regulation might effect innovation negatively.

3. What
world and society will we have in 2014?

We had a
consensus in our group, that of a very pessimistic outlook for the
coming
years. There are a lot of opportunities, but as many negatives. For
example:
increasing security problems, global conflicts, instability in the
regional
blocks and in the monetary market. Nevertheless we are convinced there
is a
global agreement on global issues. For example: there is a long standing
process
of understanding environmental issues. That is a positive message. But
we have
to add: This process is taking way too long. In summary: the outlook
remains
open.

4. What is
our desire for living in those times?

First of
all: to keep peace, peaceful times as a basic of all things.

Ever since
the end of the cold war there was a common understanding among us, that
we will
not have to suffer a new war in Europe. Even though peace is the
foundation of
sustainable entrepreneurship an innovation we have to realize, that
peace can
not be taken for granted.

5. What
type of society do we envision?

The main
issues are: open, pluralistic an tolerant, then in itself works.
We have to
fight against poverty and fundamentalism and for equal chances.
We envision
a society that offers opportunities, but that expects as well, that you
give
something back to society, if you can.

Therefore
we need the right environment locally and wider scale structures and
regulations, or deregulations. (Distinguished between small and large
businesses.)

For
example, we talked about the phenomenon of equipment centres for small
scale
companies and starting up a company after finishing your study. Also for
new
professions as multi-media etc.

We could
call them: “Small Business Incubation Centres” and we really need them
to
spread like mushrooms.

For
example, the European tender system is at the moment the reason that a
lot of
small companies cannot compete the bigger ones, and many of them have to
stop
their business.

We noticed
that we needed different ways to transfer….(like Fons Trompenaars said
at the
beginning of this journey) …..embrace the opposites…..

So…

Transfer
between generations, between young and starting persons and older ore
more
experienced persons. We speak about coaching and mentorship. This can be
done
(and found) by all of us.

Transfer
between bigger and smaller companies. The bigger ones mostly have more
money,
but a less inspiring environment for innovations. The bigger can invest
in the
smaller companies, where at their turn they can join the innovative
atmosphere.

Transfer of
education. A more practical study through the opportunity of practical
training
periods in companies. Refreshing teachers in companies ore combining
teaching
with working as an entrepreneur.

Transfer of
knowledge and experience between European countries. Working together to
solve
problems ore find new solutions.

As a group
of innovative entrepreneurs on this inspiring caravan we would like to
give the
other groups ….the gift of the entrepreneurial attitude…. not only to
create
things - when needed – but also clear away things when there are too
much of
them.

For
example, when there are too much of regulations and laws, we as
entrepreneurs
are not able or allowed to remove laws that are an obstruction or no
longer
needed, but with a bit of entrepreneurial attitude (which we can help
them to
learn) the new European lawyers and politicians can do that.

But also -
of course – all the new European humans should consider not look only
what they
want to reach, but also what they leave behind for future generations.

6. What
innovative ideas or concepts would we like to implement. How can we (not
others) manage it?

Because
good things can be done in many areas of society, we tried to focus our
discussion on the foundation of seeding innovation and entrepreneurship.

Even
networking has become a common ground, we had to look for the next layer
of new
ideas. Since the internet has become everybody’s darling it allows a
democratic
free flow of information. But up to this time the use of the internet
seems to
be limited to the experts.

Heiko and
Loic told us about a new tool that allow everyone to participate in the
advantage of information sharing. The tool is named weblog.

Web means a
net with knots and the space between them, like the fisherman’s net.
In the internet we all can be a knot in
the net by taking part in the information
Process as a receiver and a transmitter
as well.

Log means the daily our hourly written diary ,
the logbook of a ship or just a
caravan. Some of us are used to write
every day in their diary. Why should we
not publish it every day and get back
the comments of a big audience.

The web-log
is nothing else than a tool for all of us to take part in a daily
worldwide
dialogue.
If you want to have more information, you must
not read, learn or write anything.
Just do
this:
Turn on
your PC,
connect
with the internet,
type
google.com or so,
and then
type: Euroidentity
or Loic or
Heiko
and follow
the traffic lights.
This new
road will lead us to the EICC - weblog